1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in replaceable seat headrest covers. The present invention relates more specifically to the means for attaching headrest covers to seats as well as the manufacturing processes for the headrest covers. The invention resides in the construction, combination, and arrangement of parts as well as the methods of manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
For the purpose of illustration, most references made herein are to the use of headrest covers on airline carriers and cinema theaters, but the invention applies to all forms of transportation, public conveyances, and facilities in both commercial and residential settings; i.e.: buses, trains, boats, automobiles, medical/dental facilities, entertainment venues, offices, homes and the likes. The present invention finds utility anywhere an individual might find it necessary to use a seat that has been previously occupied by other individuals.
Ever since the introduction of the headrest portion of a seat on transportation vehicle seats, and more recently on cinema theaters, the issue of the headrest becoming soiled and potentially contaminated by constant contact with multiple occupants has been a latent concern to respective industries, health agencies, and the informed general public. This issue of concern is especially acute on long transit transportation vehicles and cinema theaters where the seat occupants constantly rub their scalps against the headrest while assuming a more relaxed position. Such continuous contact with the headrest results in it quickly becoming soiled, creating a potentially unsanitary surface, which may act as a conduit to transfer contaminants to subsequent occupants.
High traffic surfaces harbor microorganisms that can contaminate a multitude of people. The present invention is designed not only to prevent possible soiling of the head-rest portion of the seat, but also the possibility of transmission of scalp, skin, parasitic and other diseases from any of the many previous users of the seat to another user. This possibility of transmission increases due to the fact that most people, in many high traffic and crowded settings, use the headrest portion of seats, as handle bars. They are used as leverage to get in, out and up from seats, as balancing tools while moving down the isle or simply as a place to set ones hands while standing, chatting, or waiting to disembark.
Throughout the useful life of commercial airplanes and cinema theaters, seats can often be occupied by thousands of different individuals of various degrees of cleanliness and health conditions before seats are ever cleaned, replaced, or reupholstered. Some seats may even go years before being properly cleaned. In many cases, the cleaning process might not sufficiently sanitize the headrest. Most health agencies cite international travel as a major factor in the global spread of contagious diseases. If headrest surfaces are not consistently cleaned after each occupant, the seats can potentially expose a multitude of future occupants to serious health hazards which could later be transferred and spread across entire communities.
Upholstered headrests can hide the tiny gray-white head lice eggs called nits. Head lice can live up to two to three days apart from the body, on a seat headrest. Head lice are remarkably prolific and can spread and flourish even among so-called hygiene conscious communities. In the U.S. alone, as many as twelve million people could be host to head lice at any given time. Unless provisions are made to continuously provide the public and travelers with sanitized headrest surfaces, the potential for the rapid spread of infectious, communicable, contagious, and parasitic diseases is greatly increased. A separate, but closely applicable concern is the realistic threat of a terrorist act, i.e.; applying chemical type substances to seat surfaces which are in direct contact with a passenger's skin. Most chemicals are readily absorbed through the skin and in many cases skin is a more significant route of exposure than the lungs.
Presently, the most common method to reduce soiling and contamination on public seats is with the use of replaceable headrest covers. Unfortunately, the sporadic and inconsistent manner in which such covers are presently used does little in preventing the contamination of public seats and consequently that of their occupants. The general public, although not yet publicly expressing concern likely soon will, as they become aware of the imminent risk of using public seats without protective covers. Without public expressions of concern, applicable industries and agencies may downplay the risk, placing priority on economic efficiency over the safety of seat occupants. Individual, cost effective, solutions to the problem will therefore become very important.
Resting ones head on the headrest of an unprotected public seat could be the equivalent of resting ones head on a hotel pillow that has been used by multiple individuals, without changing the pillow casing. No one well informed of the potential risk and consequences would willingly rub their head against a stranger's scalp, much less with that of the hundreds of individuals with different degrees of hygiene and unknown health conditions that have used the seat before them. For these reasons alone, it might be concluded that in an effort to reduce or control the effects of a potential pandemic, public conveyances and entertainment venues might appropriately be required to provide sanitized covers after each leg of travel and prior to every show-time, respectively. If such a mandate were to be imposed today, many public carriers would be under prepared to comply with such a directive. Many transportation carriers would not be able to absorb the time and financial burden required in complying with such a legal requirement, and those industries that did, would likely pass the incremental cost directly on to the customers.
The airline industry and other agencies have long sought alternative means for efficiently addressing said problems without imposing further stress on an industry already under severe economic pressures. One reason airlines do not provide protective covers to passengers is the fact that most, if not all presently available headrest covers, are too costly to provide. They require extensive handling and are considered invasive to the seat, often requiring attachment elements to be previously and permanently embedded onto the seats.
Some earlier methods of attaching replaceable covers to the headrest included elaborate mechanisms as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,749 issued to Struble (1962) and even required special tools as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,113,803 also issued to Struble (1963). The need for a special tool to attach the cover to the headrest, and the requirement of having to permanently embed the receiving engagement element onto a seat, turns the method of attachment into an inefficient, inconvenient, and expensive alternative.
Another unpopular method to engage replaceable covers to a seat headrest is with the use of adhesive strips. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,059 issued to Zisblatt (1972) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,523 issued to Alpert (1972) as examples. An inherent problem with such methods of attachment is the build-up of adhesive residue on the headrest, which creates a sanitary hazard in itself. Separate from the hygiene concern, certain materials used in the construction of seats do not lend to adequately hold adhesive strips. Any method requiring repetitive application of adhesive substances on the seat's surface, especially to the area where occupants usually rests their heads, is not one that can be widely embraced by any industry or health agencies.
Several other improvements have been made to headrest covers over the years and in particular to the means for attaching the cover to the seat, but most suffer similar drawbacks; the need for special receiving engagement elements on the seat in order for the removable headrest cover to be held in place. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,841 issued to Altman (1966); U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,632 issued to Struble (1967); U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,458 issued to Jannoni (1974); U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,281 issued to Byrnes (1977); U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,609 issued to Ness (1978); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,781 issued to Andersson (1978) as further examples of previous efforts in the field.
For the above stated reasons, the use of such hook-and-loop and adhesive engagement devices and reusable covers is dramatically declining and even discontinued, as the handling process for the covers and specific requirement of embedding engagement elements onto the seat results in it being a costly alternative. In addition, the engagement elements permanently embedded onto the seats can degrade the seat's appearance and become cause for hygiene concern themselves. An even more deterrent factor materializes with the use of presently available reusable headrest covers. The reusable versions of headrest covers are primarily made of cloth, leather, or towel like material. These types of materials and reusable fastening elements are expensive to purchase and their loss by unauthorized removal and mishandling adds to the operating cost. The laundering of such covers is an expensive operation, requiring additional handling for packaging and transporting it to and from the processing locations. The life time replacement cycle for reusable covers would primarily depend on how often they are cleaned, as the laundering process deteriorates the fabric, its texture, and its colors. Unless a fresh cover is provided for each individual passenger, the frequency in which covers are currently utilized does little to fulfill the object of providing hygiene protection for passengers. In many cases, when airlines provide headrest covers on seats and are not regularly changed, it is primarily because its use is intended to protect the seat fabric and not necessarily the passengers. Even when carriers try to provide and replace covers after each passenger, significant waste results when service personnel are not able to distinguish between used covers and those that have not yet been utilized.
Efforts have gone as far as creating some type of recognition system to reduce such waste. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,701 issued to Kifferstain in which an arrangement in the cover sheet indicates whether it has been used such that a person intending to sit in the seat is informed whether the cover sheet is fresh or used, and the service personnel are able to identify the used cover sheets.
Thus it can be concluded, that the process of using any of the present headrest covers available is costly and time prohibitive for most carriers, especially when they have to be replaced with each leg of travel. This is therefore a long-felt, but unfulfilled need that the present invention efficiently will resolve.
In summary, a number of issues presently face carriers when using any of the currently available headrest covers and it becomes apparent that these issues are major deterrents to the consistent use of headrest covers. These issues include: the high cost to purchase; the cost to incorporate required engagement elements onto existing and new seats; the labor cost required to implement a one cover per passenger cycle; the cost of replacing all covers after each individual use; the cost of discarding fresh covers, not being able to distinguish the used from the new covers; the cost of shipping, laundering, storing and handling of reusable covers; the cost associated with potential delays to flight schedules contribute an unnecessary burden on industries already in distress.
The above harmful impact to the use frequency for headrest covers obliterates a cover's ultimate function; to protect individuals and communities from potential contamination. In addition to protection, the use of headrest covers provides the concerned public with a priceless added advantage; namely, user peace of mind. Once again in summary, all reusable and disposable replaceable headrest covers previously developed, suffer from a number of critical disadvantages that hinder the consistent use of said covers.
Research indicates that one convenient solution for such a critical, latent, and global dilemma would be to make available to applicable industries and the general public, an economical, replaceable, compact, disposable headrest cover that can be installed and removed easily and disposed of by the seat occupants themselves. If the travel community and general public have not yet publicly raised concerns, it is mainly because they are uninformed about some facts. In summary these facts include the following:
(a) Public seats seldom are properly cleaned and when they are, it is often only after months, if not years of continuous use.
(b) When individuals rest their heads on unprotected public seats they are rubbing their scalps against a surface that has been in contact with possibly hundreds of prior seat occupants with various degrees of cleanliness and health conditions.
(c) Every time individuals occupy a public seat without being adequately protected they can potentially become contaminated with a variety of skin conditions, parasitic caused illnesses and other contagious diseases.
(d) The human hand can be a major carrier (source) of viruses, germs, and bacteria. One common form of transmission of the flu and many other common illnesses is by contact with a surface that has been touched by an infected person. Rubbing ones' eyes, nose, or mouth after touching contaminated surfaces increases the possibility of becoming ill and of further spreading of germs. Again, most people use the headrest portion of seats as handle bars, especially in airplanes.
Becoming aware of these and other more specific consequences without the benefit of the present invention could cause public panic, disrupt communities, and even negatively impact the economy of a given sector. To minimize the potential for transmission of any virus, skin condition, or communicable diseases, the headrest cover should be used on a globally consistent basis. International carriers can be a major factor in the spread of a disease globally. Getting ill while aboard an airplane can be a serious matter. From the common cold to more serious infections, air passengers are more exposed to germs and viruses than ever before. High traffic surfaces harbor microorganisms that can contaminate a multitude of people. The present invention is designed not only to prevent possible soiling of the head-rest portion of the seat, but also the possibility of transmission of scalp, skin and other diseases from any prior user of the seat to others.
As some airlines literally struggle to survive, cost cutting has become a way of life for their industry. One of the first items eliminated with airline cutbacks were headrest covers. When still provided it can be assumed that it's primary intent is to protect the seat and/or to give the illusion that protection is being provided.